The dazzling rings of Saturn are taking center stage in amazing new pictures snapped by NASA's Cassini spacecraft currently orbiting the planet.

The new Saturn ring photos come as the Cassini probe moves into a slightly different orbit around its gas giant target, officials with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., said in an image announcement.

"It's been nearly two years since NASA's Cassini spacecraft has had views like these of Saturn's glorious rings," JPL officials explained. "These views are possible again because Cassini has changed the angle at which it orbits Saturn and regularly passes above and below Saturn's equatorial plane."

The new view allows Cassini mission scientists to better study the shifting motions and intricacies of Saturn's rings, as well as the small moons that shape the rings.

Three Cassini images show a propeller-shaped structure created by an unseen moon in Saturn's A ring. Saturn's rings are visible for the first time in two years, as Cassini spacecraft moved out of Saturn's equatorial plane in the spring of 2012.Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI/Cornell

With Cassini in the new orbit, the mission team has revived a project aimed at studying odd propeller-like shapes in Saturn's rings, JPL officials said. The propeller features appear as parts of the rings are swept clean by strange particles that are larger than the actual ring particles, but smaller than the known moons of Saturn, they added.

The Saturn ring propellers have not been seen in recent years because Cassini's orbit did not allow favorable views of the planet's rings. Since Cassini entered its new orbit, however, scientists have spotted propeller features that appear similar to ones observed in the past, NASA officials said.

The orbit change will also allow Cassini to observe Saturn's polar regions while gaining a new perspective on the planet's many moons.

"We're entering a new episode in Cassini's exploratory voyage through the Saturn system," Carolyn Porco, imaging team lead, based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo., said in a statement. "These new ring results are an early harbinger of great things to come."

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Tariq Malik

Tariq joined Purch's Space.com team in 2001 as a staff writer, and later editor, covering human spaceflight, exploration and space science. He became Space.com's Managing Editor in 2009. Before joining Space.com, Tariq was a staff reporter for The Los Angeles Times. He is also an Eagle Scout (yes, he has the Space Exploration merit bage) and went to Space Camp four times. He has journalism degrees from the University of Southern California and New York University. To see his latest project, you can follow Tariq on Google+, Twitter and on Facebook.